Valve

ABSTRACT

A valve member for an air eliminator is a flexible band or reed secured at one end to a movable float and at the other end to the housing adjacent a valve seat surrounding a port therein. A flexible sealing band formed of a resilient material overlies and is coextensive with the flexible band to provide a hermetic seal around the valve port when the float moves into a valve closing position. The sealing band is apertured where it overlies the port to equalize the pressure across the sealing band when it is positioned over the port.

United States. Patent [191 Siebold VALVE Inventor: Howard E. Siebold,Libertyville, Ill.

Liquid Controls Corporation, North Chicago, 111.

Apr. 26, 1971 Assignee:

Filed:

Appl. No.:

[52] US. Cl 137/202, 137/451, 251/175,

251/DIG. 2 Int. Cl Fl6r 31/20, Fl6k 45/02 Field of Search 137/202, 192,451,

l37/625.28; 251/175, DIG. 2

[5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2/1970 Smyers 251/1752/1927 Schcibeler 137/451 X [451 June 26,1973

11/1896 Clarke 137/451 X 4/1898 Cotter l37/625.28 X

Primary Examiner-Alan Cohan Attorney-Fidler, Patnaude & Batz [5 7ABSTRACT A valve member for an air eliminator is a flexible band or reedsecured at one end to a movable float and at the other end to thehousing adjacent a valve seat surrounding a port therein. A flexiblesealing band formed of a resilient material overlies and is coextensivewith the flexible band to provide a hermetic seal around the valve portwhen the float moves into a valve closing position. The sealing band isapertured where it overlies the port to equalize the pressure across thesealing band'when it is positioned over the port.

4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJUNZB 1975 INVENTOR HOWARD E.SIEBOLD FIG. 2

ATTORNEYS VALVE The present invention generally relates to fluid controlvalves, and it relates more particularly to valves of the type employinga flexible band or reed as the valve element. One such valve is describein US. Pat. No. 3,083,874 issued on Apr. 2, 1963 and assigned to thesame assignee as the present invention.

Metallic flexible bands have been used extensively to control the flowof fluids in air eliminators and liquid segregators, and in suchapplications the flexible bands are generally moved between opened andclosed positions by vertically movable floats. The bands are eachdoubled back on themselves into a generally U-shape and are connected atone end to the float and at the other end to locations on the housingadjacent valve seats with which the flexible bands cooperate.

In order to provide a good seal around the valve port between theflexible band and the valve plate, the valve plates have incorporated arubber-like coating against which the band seats. Such valve plates arenot only ex.- pensive but they do not perform well when used withcertain types of fluids. One problem is that the coating materialexpands in the presence of certain fluids which changes the geometry ofthe valve seat and results in poor sealing. Some unsuccessful attemptsto solve this problem have centered on providing a better bond betweenthe coating material and the metal substructure and in laminating aresilient sealing material directly onto the flexible bands.

An object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a new andimproved valve construction.

Another object of this invention is to provide a new and improvedflexible reed type valve.

A further object of this invention is to provide new and improved meansfor effecting a hermetic seal between a flexible reed type valve memberand avalve seat.

Briefly, the above and further objects may be realized in accordancewith the present invention by providing a resilient sealing memberdisposed over the face of a valve member for effecting a hermetic sealbetween the valve member and the associated valve seat. The sealingmember is loosely mounted over the face of the valve member and isapertured at the location where it overlies the valve port so as to beremovable from the valve seat with the valve member irrespective of thepressure differential across the valve. In a preferred embodiment ofthis invention the sealing member is an elongated band which is separatefrom but which overlies the flexible metal band throughout its length,and the two bands are fastened together only at the two locations wheretheflexible band is secured to the valve actuating member and to thevalve housing.

Further objects and advantages and better understanding of the presentinvention may be had by reference to the following detailed descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a vertically sectioned, elevational view of an air eliminatorembodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of one of the valve plates of the deviceof FIG. 1 taken along the line 2-2 thereof; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of FIG.2.

Referring now to the drawing and particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, ahousing member encloses a float chamber 11 which is open at the bottomfor communication with a liquid carrying line from which air or othergaseous material is to be removed. A mounting flange l2 suitablyapertured as at 13 is provided at the bottom of the housing 10, and apair of diametrically opposite openings 14 and 15 are provided in thehousing 10 adjacent to the top thereof. The openings 14 and 15 aresubstantially closed by means of a pair of valve plates 16 and 17 whichare respectively provided with identically shaped vertically elongatedvalve ports 18 and 19 therein. The shape of the valve port 19 is bestshown in FIG. 2.

A pair of flat generally rectangular gaskets 21 and 22 are respectivelypositioned between the inner faces of the valve plates 16 and 17 and theadjacent surfaces of the housing 10 surrounding the openings 14 and 15.A pair of end caps 23 and 24 are bolted to the housing 10 over the valveplates 16 and 17 by means of a plurality of bolts 25. Suitable O-ringtype gaskets 26 and 27 are mounted in grooves in the faces of the endcaps 23 and 24 to provide a hermetic seal between the adjacent surfacesof the valve plates 16 and 17 and the respective end caps 23 and 24. Theend caps 23 and 24 are respectively provided with tapped centrallydisposed bores 29 and 30 and receive a pair of pipes 31 and 32. Pressureequalizing passageways 34, only one of which is shown in FIG. 1, areprovided in the housing 10 and are aligned with openings 35 and 36 inthe valve plates 16 and 17 for interconnecting the generally annularchambers in the end caps 23-and 24.

A float guide stem 37 is centrally mounted within the float chamber 11and a hollow float 38 is slidably mounted on the stem 37. Moreparticularly, the upper end of the stem 37 is located in a generallycylindrical recess 39 provided in the inner face of the top wall of thehousing 10 and the bottom end of the stem 37 is riveted to a circularmounting plate 40 fastened to the housing 10 over the bottom of thechamber 11 by means of a plurality of machine screws 41. A plurality oflarge openings 42 are provided in the plate 40 to permit the free flowof fluid into and out of the float chamber 11.

' The float 38 is part of an integral assembly which includes a tube 44slidably disposed on the stem 37 for movement with the float 38. Agenerally U-shaped mounting bracket 45 is fixed to the tube 44 above thefloat 38 by any suitably means such, for example, as by welding thebottom end portions of the legs 46 and 47 of the bracket 45 to the tube44. I

With the float assembly in an upper position as shown in FIG. 1, thevalve ports 18 and 19 are adapted to be closed by a pair of imperforatereed type valve members 48 and 49 which are each secured to the bracket45 at one end and to the housing 10 at the other end. As shown, theinner ends of the reeds or bands 48 and 49 are respectively secured tothe legs 46 and 47 of the bracket 45 by means of a pair of screws 50 and51 which extend through a pair of apertured mounting plates 52 and 53and aligned apertures cut in the reeds 48 and 49. The screws 50 and 51are threaded into openings in the legs 46 and 47, thus securing thereeds to the float. The outerends of the reed members 48 and 49 arerespectively secured to the housing 10 by a pair of screws 55 and 56which extend through apertured mounting plate 57 and 58 and alignedapertures in the reeds 48 and 49 and threaded into suitable bores in thehousing such that the lower ends of the reed members 48 and 49 lieagainst upwardly diverging mounting faces 59 and 60 respectively. it maythus be seen that the reed members 48 and 49 extend upwardly from theirpoints of securement to the bracket 45 and are doubled over into aU-shape to extend downwardly past the corresponding valve ports 18 and19 to their points of securement directly below the valve ports.Preferably the surfaces 59 and 60 are sloped, as shown, to bias thevalve members 48 and 49 against the surfaces of the valve plates 16 and17 surrounding the valve ports 18 and 19. The legs 46 and 47 of thebracket 45 diverge inwardly, as shown, so that the reed members 48 and49 exert a small upward force on the float 38. In some applications itis preferable for the legs 46 and 47 to be parallel so that the valvemembers 48 and 49 exert substantially zero force on the float 38.

It may thus be seen that when the float 38 and the associated assemblyare in the raised position as illustrated in FIG. 1, the reed members 48and 49 will cover and close the valve ports 18 and 19. As the floatmoves downwardly from the position shown, the reeds are gradually peeledaway from the valve plates 16 and 17 to open the ports 18 and 19 fromthe top down.

In order to provide a hermetic seal between the reeds 48 and 49 and thevalve plates 16 and 17 it was common practice in the prior art to coatthe inner faces of the valve plates 16 and 17 with a resilient materialsuch as plastic or rubber. However, because of seepage of fluid betweenthe resilient layer and the metal substrate or because of other reasonssuch as expansion of the sealing material in the presence of certainfluids, such valve seats often times became distorted, resulting inleakage past the reeds 48 and 49.

In accordance with the present invention a pair of sealing strips 62 and63 are formed of a resilient sealing material such as plastic or rubberand have a shape substantially identical to that of the reeds 48 and 49.While the sealing strips or bands 62 and 63 are separate from and arenot bonded to the reeds 48 and 49, they are secured to the reeds at thesame locations where the reeds are secured to the bracket 45 and housing10. More particularly, the sealing bands 62 and 63 are apertured neartheir inner ends to receive the shanks of the screws 50 and 51 and areapertured near their outer ends to receive the shanks of the screws 55and 56. The sealing bands'62 and 63 are relatively soft and flexiblecompared to the metal reeds 48 and 49 and in accorvclance with thepresent invention are provided with apertures 64 and 65 which liedirectly opposite to the upper portions of .the ports 18 and 19 when thevalve is in a closed position. The openings 64 and 65 are necessary toequalize the pressure across the sealing bands 62 and 63 so that whenthe float 38 moves downwardly from the illustrated closed position topeel the reeds 48 and 49 away from the valve plates 16 and 17, thesealing bands 62 and 63 will follow. Without the openings 64 and 65, apressure differential may build up across the sealing bands 62 and 63 tohold them in engagement with the valve plates 16 and 17 as the floatmoves down, and-in some cases to actually force the sealing bands intothe valve ports thereby rendering the'device inoperative.

The device of FIG. 1 is an air eliminator and, therefore, as the amountof air collected in the float chamber 11 increases, the liquid level inthe chamber will decrease whereby the float drops to open the ports 18and 19 and permit the air to escape. The device of FIG. 1 can also beused as a liquid segregator wherein the less tom of the chamber (top asshown in FIG. 1) the float rises thereby to permit the heavier liquid toescape through the pipes 31 and 32.

The reeds 48 and 49 are preferably formed of a strong spring type metalsuch, for example, as Elgiloy and the sealing bands 62 and 63 arepreferably formed of a plastic sealing material such, for example, asTef lon or of natural rubber. These sealing bands need not beparticularly strong since there is no pressure differential developedacross them and their sole purpose is to provide a hermetic seal betweenthe reeds 48 and 49 and the valve seat surfaces provided on the valveplates 16 and 17.

Referring to FIG. 2, it may be seen that the opening 65 in the sealingband 63 is positioned so as to be located adjacent to the upper end ofthe valve port 19. The opening 64 in the sealing band 62 is similarlylocated so that as the reeds 48 and 49 begin to peel away from the valveports 18 and 19 any pressure differential built up across the sealingbands 62 and 63 is immediately relieved while the sealing bands arestill held in place by the reeds 48 and 49 against a large surface areaof the valve plates 16 and 17 immediately adjacent to the ports 18 and19.

The present invention thus eliminates the need and expense oflaminatinga resilient layer or'coating on the valve plates 16 and 17.Moreover, the sealing bands 62 and 63 need not be laminated or otherwisesealed to thereeds 48 and 49 thus assuring a long and effectivelifewithout any change in configuration of the sealing member.

While the present invention has been described in connection with aparticular embodiment thereof, it will be understood that many changesand modifications of this invention may be made by those skilled in theart without departing from the true spirit and scope thereof.Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all such changesand modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of thepresent invention What is claimed is: a

1. An air eliminator of the type comprising'a housing defining a floatchamber therein, a float disposed in said chamber, aplurality of reedsconnected between said float and said housing for controlled movementover vertically elongated valve ports in said housing as said floatmoves upwardly in said chamber, the improvement comprising a pluralityof resilient, flexible sealing strips secured to said reeds at spacedapart locations to be positioned between said reeds and valve seatssurrounding said valve ports,

said sealing strips being provided with apertures which-are aligned with.the upper portions of said valve ports when said reeds are positionedover said valve ports.

2. A valve having a valve seat and a valve member movable toward andaway from said seat to open and close an aperture in said valve seat,the improvement comprising member is a strip attached near both of itsends to said reed.

4. An air eliminator embodying a pair of valves as set forth in claim3', and further comprising a housing defining a float chamber in whichsaid valves are mounted, a float disposed in said chamber, meansconnecting said other end of each of the reeds in said valves to saidfloat, and means connecting said one end of each of the reeds in saidvalves to said housing.

1. An air eliminator of the type comprising a housing defining a floatchamber therein, a float disposed in said chamber, a plurality of reedsconnected between said float and said housing for controlled movementover vertically elongated valve ports in said housing as said floatmoves upwardly in said chamber, the improvement comprising a pluralityof resilient, flexible sealing strips secured to said reeds at spacedapart locations to be positioned between said reeds and valve seatssurrounding said valve ports, said sealing strips being provided withapertures which are aligned with the upper portions of said valve portswhen said reeds are positioned over said valve ports.
 2. A valve havinga valve seat and a valve member movable toward and away from said seatto open and close an aperture in said valve seat, the improvementcomprising a soft, flexible, sealing member mounted on said valve memberfor movement by said valve member against said seat over said aperture,said sealing member being provided with an opening therethrough, saidopening being aligned with said aperture to equalize the pressure acrosssaid sealing member, said valve member being an elongated flexible reedhaving one end fixed relative to said seat and the other end movable,thereby to move an intermediate portion of said reed relative to saidseat.
 3. A valve according to claim 2 wherein said sealing member is astrip attached near both of its ends to said reed.
 4. An air eliminatorembodying a pair of valves as set forth in claim 3, and furthercomprising a housing defining a float chamber in which said valves aremounted, a float disposed in said chamber, means connecting said otherend of each of the reeds in said valves to said float, and meansconnecting said one end of each of the reeds in said valves to saidhousing.